Ecuador: a municipal councilor of a city in the hands of drug trafficking kidnapped then killed

September 8, 2023

A municipal councilor in the city of Duran, in western Equateur, was kidnapped and then shot dead in a new episode of violence that is shaking the country in the run-up to the October presidential election, announced on Friday Crown.

Municipal councilor Bolivar Vera “was found lifeless today”, indicates the prosecution in a press release published on X (formerly Twitter), announcing the opening of an investigation.

Local authorities denounced his “alleged kidnapping” on Thursday and asked for help from the police to find him.

Bolivar Vera was hit by “several bullets apparently in the head and chest”, police Colonel Paul Villavicencio told the press.

His body was found with his hands tied and bleeding in a wooded area of Guayas province, a region plagued by violence linked to drug trafficking, according to AFP journalists who witnessed the body being removed. .

Bolivar Vera, member of the Social Christian Party (right), was recently elected councilor.

This new episode of violence comes after the assassination on August 9 by Colombian hitmen of one of the main presidential candidates, Fernando Villavicencio.

A mayor, a parliamentary candidate and another local political leader were also killed during the election campaign. The second round of the presidential election will be held on October 15.

A shooting also left four people dead, including an 11-year-old child, and six injured on Thursday in the port of Guayaquil near the city of Duran, according to the police. Among the injured are two girls aged seven and five.

Violence in Ecuador “must not distract us from the origins of insecurity (…) which are poverty, lack of employment opportunities and a lack of education which turns young people into easy recruits for gangs criminals”, reacted Olivier De Schutter, independent United Nations expert quoted in a press release.

Once considered an island of peace in Latin America, Ecuador, located between Colombia and Peru, the world’s two largest producers of cocaine, is hit by an unprecedented wave of violence linked to organized crime and drug trafficking.

The homicide rate has quadrupled since 2018 in the country, from 6 to 26 per 100,000 inhabitants. Kidnappings are also commonplace.

The country’s prisons are also the scene of recurring massacres between inmates who are members of rival gangs. Some 430 detainees have died since 2021.

In this context of increasing violence, death threats against journalists are exploding. Between January and August 2023, 216 attacks or assaults on journalists, 15 of which were death threats, were recorded, according to press advocacy organizations.